


Statues at the Gate

by sparklespiff



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-06
Updated: 2006-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-29 16:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1007801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklespiff/pseuds/sparklespiff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ryoma leaves, Tezuka doesn’t give him anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Statues at the Gate

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Bruised by Jack's Mannequin. Big thanks to [](http://spurious.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://spurious.livejournal.com/)**spurious** for the look-over and the title. :)

When Ryoma leaves, Tezuka doesn’t give him anything because when everyone else had been out getting Ryoma presents, Tezuka had been thinking. He’d been thinking about America and what that meant; he’d been thinking about the words ‘Seigaku’s pillar’ and how much of that was his way of justifying a change in priorities. When had _Ryoma_ become the important thing?

So that’s why he’s standing there without anything to give him or anything to say, trying not to feel like a teenager and melodramatic, trying not to be the kind of person who wails that his entire world is ending just because a boy is leaving. That’s the confusing thing; he’s known Ryoma for less than a year, hadn’t spent a larger amount of time with him than the rest of the Regulars, so why does nobody else look like something inside them is ripping?

He’s Ryoma’s _captain_ and he can’t hold him back, he can’t say, “Don’t leave,” or “Please come back,” so he just stands there not saying anything at all, trying not to show anything on his face that could show up in the pictures that reporter woman is taking, trying not to feel bitter when that girl hands Ryoma a tennis ball and he smiles at her.

He’d written _Fly_ , and he’d meant it, he means it, so he stands there and lets Ryoma leave. All that’s left is to wonder when it’s going to stop hurting. They have to win Nationals, and he can’t play injured.


End file.
